So I have a question to all the Aussies. How did you guys let it get this bad in your country?
Apathy.
We have a situation where we used to trust our media, they used to be fairly okay, as much as biased reporting has been around forever. For the most part though, we could get the news, and go down the street and see that it was, what the news was reporting.
For the most part, we haven't left that way of thinking, because of things like access to information, and how expensive everything is. Until recently the average person couldn't afford unlimited internet, they still can't afford unlimited 'cable' TV, plus most of it is absolutely garbage, so we're still resigned to getting our news from the free-to-air channels and newspapers, and as we all know, both have become EXTREMELY one sided in the last 5 years.
Very few people know how to find information, they may know how to use critical thinking, but they have no idea how to apply it to internet sources. It's still a totally different world to most Australians, even academics.
You only have to look at the Rudd thread on twitter, for the most part they are normal Australians replying to him, they still believe everything he says, even if you were to show them that he has shares in Pfizer, they don't see what difference that makes, 'well people can have shares in anything they want, doesn't mean they are evil', type of thing.

I've honestly had enough...